Image to ANSI art
Draw a coloured picture for the terminal. Your photo never leaves your device.
- Your text is never uploaded
- Processed on your device
- Works offline
- Free, no sign-up
Empty
Result updates as you type
The result appears here as soon as you type or open a file.
Settings
How it works
Open a picture
Open any photo or screenshot. Its coloured text version appears at once.
Set the width
Match the width to your terminal so the picture fills the window neatly.
Save and print it
Download the file and print it with cat in a terminal to see the colours.
What ANSI art is
ANSI art colours each character with 24-bit escape codes, so a terminal paints a full-colour picture from plain text. Every cell carries its own foreground colour followed by a shade character, ending with a reset code on each line.
The file looks like gibberish in editors that ignore escape codes — that is expected. Its true form appears only where the codes are honoured: terminals, terminal-themed pages and tools that interpret ANSI.
Viewing it correctly
Save the download and run cat on it in a terminal with true-colour support: most modern terminals qualify, including Windows Terminal, iTerm2, GNOME Terminal and recent macOS Terminal. Use a monospace font and a dark background for the strongest image.
If colours look wrong, your viewer is showing the raw codes instead of interpreting them. Piped through less, add -R; in editors, look for an ANSI preview plugin rather than reading the raw text.
Coloured inside your browser
Each pixel's colour is measured and wrapped in escape codes by JavaScript on this page. The conversion never involves a server, so whatever you turn into terminal art stays on your own machine.
There is no render history and no stored copy. The art exists in the result box and in files you deliberately save.
Questions
Is my picture uploaded to convert it?
No. The ANSI codes are produced inside your browser. Your picture never leaves your device.
Why do I see codes instead of colours?
Your viewer shows the raw escape codes instead of interpreting them. Print the file with cat in a true-colour terminal to see the picture.
The picture looks stretched. Why?
Use a monospace font: every character must share the same width, or the rows shear sideways and the image skews.
Is it free?
Yes. Free to use, with no sign-up, no watermark and no daily limits.
Related tools
More free tools that run on your device. No uploads